The present invention is directed to a soap bar with suspended articles and a process for making the same. The soap of the invention comprises a bar soap containing suspended articles which are enveloped by the primary soap and randomly distributed throughout the bar. The process for making the soap includes a cost effective method of ensuring the beads distribute evenly throughout the bar and remain suspended within the primary soap without appreciable floating or sinking of the beads.
The consumer market for bar soap is an extraordinary large market. The variety of bar soaps available to the consumer is similarly large giving the consumer a multitude of choices and rendering the marketing of soap an important part of the soap business. Because of the competition in this lucrative market, any advantage which may attract and keep the consumer""s attention will likely influence the consumer""s buying decision and result in a competitive advantage for the manufacturer. Conversely, any modification made to the soap bar for marketing purposes must be inexpensive since the soap market is highly price sensitive.
In order to distinguish their product and attract the consumer""s attention, companies have used both functional and aesthetic characteristics to attract and hold the consumer""s attention. Aesthetic characteristics including colors, patterns and shapes are well known to the art. Likewise, functional characteristics such as skin conditioners and fragrances and exfoliants have been widely used.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,869,437, to Wolferberger, teaches one method of appealing to the consumer""s aesthetic testes. The Wolferberger patent teaches the suspension of a dissolvable label or logo in a bar of transparent soap through a two stage manufacturing process. In the first stage, half of the transparent soap is poured into a mold and allowed to solidify. In the second stage a label is applied to the upper surface of the first stage bar and an additional second layer of soap is poured on top of the first soap stage to encapsulate the label. This method produces a soap bar in which the label is completely encapsulated within the soap but does not easily adapt to encapsulating a plurality of objects since the number of stages needed to evenly or randomly encapsulate a plurality of objects would unreasonably to prolong the manufacturing process and increase the cost accordingly.
Another method of appealing to consumers is to add a functional characteristic that appeals to consumers. Many of the soaps which have a conditioning effect do so by mixing a skin conditioner into the primary soap. Several soap brands have further promoted transparent soap as being free from additives that may otherwise cause skin irritations or acne. While several brands of soap have sought to distinguish themselves through the use of fragrances to impart a xe2x80x9cfreshxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ccleanxe2x80x9d smell after use.
All of these methods appeal to the consumer, however, a soap bar that includes visually appealing elements in addition to functional characteristics would be especially effective in attracting and retaining the consumers attention and thus would likely result in higher sales.
The present invention is directed to a soap bar with suspended articles randomly dispersed throughout the bar. The articles may comprise various cosmetic or aesthetic features that appeal to consumers. Also described is a process for making the soap bars.